Q&A: Case managers handling billing functions

Q: What are some of the top priorities for case managers who play roles in ensuring accurate billing at their organizations?

A: If you are a case manager tasked with billing duties, make it a goal to increase benefits and payment via Medicare managed care and Medicaid plans and ensure consistency for those payments, says Ellen Fink-Samnick, MSW, ACSW, LCSW, CCM, CRP, author of the HCPro book The Social Determinants of Health: Case Management’s Next Frontier.

This will include ongoing efforts to get CMS to approve payment for existing ICD-10 Z codes under the Inpatient Prospective Payment System and ensuring approval of the new codes recommended last year by the AMA, UnitedHealthcare, the National Committee for Quality Assurance, and the National Association of Community Health Centers, according to Fink-Samnick.